Hog Wild: Bangkok Man Settles Insider-Trading Claims

A Bangkok man will pay $5.2 million to settle allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that he profited handsomely on a series of “highly suspicious” trades ahead of the May announcement that Smithfield Foods Inc. was being acquired by a Chinese rival, the securities regulator said Thursday.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Chicago, the SEC alleged that Badin Rungruangnavarat made illicit profits of more than $3.2 million on call options, stock futures and stock purchases in the eight days before the Smithfield deal was made public.

On May 29, Smithfield, the world’s largest producer and processor of pork, announced it was being acquired by Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. in a $4.7 billion deal. It was the largest such acquisition of a U.S. firm. . . . .